trial balance

American  

noun

Bookkeeping.

• trial balances
  plural

1. a statement of all the open debit and credit items, made preliminary to balancing a double-entry ledger.

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trial balance British  

noun

1. accounting a statement of all the debit and credit balances in the ledger of a double-entry system, drawn up to test their equality

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• trial balances
  plural

Etymology

Origin of trial balance

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trial balance

I made out a trial balance for the business of the last six months.

From Desk and Debit or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk by Oliver Optic

"You have been faithful, and you have kept your books remarkably well; but taking a trial balance isn't your forte yet."

From Desk and Debit or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk by Oliver Optic

"You told me to look into the system of keeping the books, and I thought I could not do it any better than by getting out a trial balance for the last six months."

From Desk and Debit or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk by Oliver Optic

As he said, he wanted to settle his accounts and take his trial balance, and the presence of another person might be disturbing to that process.

From Atlantis by Adele Szold Seltzer

The Batavian Republic now could make up a little trial balance.

From The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom 1795-1813 by Hendrik Willem Van Loon